Half-Circle Skirt Tutorial

I made up this skirt the other day, a Circle Skirt with an elastic waist band.



I ended up being really happy with how it came out, but I had originally planned to make it a 1/2 circle skirt. Then I went on auto-pilot and cut it out for a full circle. You might think you can just chop it in half and call it good, but it doesn't work like that. A friend asked how to make a 1/2 circle skirt and I tried explaining, but I decided it'd be easier with pictures, so here is how to make a 1/2 circle skirt!

Your measurements will determine how much fabric you need.  For a 40 inch waist I needed a little bit more than 1.5 yards.

The first step is to measure around where you want the skirt to lay.  Mine ended up being 41 inches, we'll call it W.  Take that measurement and divide it by 3.14.  41/3.14=13.05, I just round to 13. This is the measurement you will need for the inner arc, we'll call it X. Then determine the length you want your skirt to be.  I wanted my to hit right above the knee, which ended up being 17 inches.  We'll call it L.  Now add X to L, and this is the measurement you want for the outer arc.  13+17=30.  Double this to determine how much fabric you'll need, plus a little bit more just to be safe, so I needed a little bit more than 60 inches of fabric .

So to recap.....

W/3.14=X
X= inner arc radius
X+L= outer arc radius.
Outer arc radius x2 (plus a little bit)= total amount of fabric to buy.

Now lets get started with putting it together.

Lay out your fabric and unfold it so it is only one layer thick.  Make a compass with your measuring tape, a pin, and a marker.  Place a pin at your outer arc radius, mine was 30, and pin it at the bottom edge of the fabric.  Then use a marker to draw a big half circle.



^Fabric laid out, measuring tape pinned at the bottom edge.

Now making sure to place your pin in the same place, do the same thing with your inner arc measurement, X.



Take a break to pet the kitty that comes and lays down right in the middle of where you're working.



Now you should have two arcs, one inside the other.  Cut along the lines you drew.





I forgot to take pictures of these parts, but to simplify things later on, finish the edge of the inner arc, either by hemming, pinking shears, or a zig zag stitch. Then line the flat edges up, wrong sides together, and sew along the flat edge only.

Now it is time to get started on the waist band.  I have found that subtracting 3 inches from my waist measurement gives me a pretty perfect fit, so I cut my elastic 38 inches long.  I am using the widest elastic that was available at my local Joann's, I believe it is 3 inches.  Finish the raw edges.



Then line them up, and sew them together along the short sides, forming a tube of elastic.




Now sew the loose flaps down.



 You should end up with something like this.



 Now place pins at equal intervals on the inner circle (not arc, because we sewed it together into a circle) and the waist band.  I usually pin at the 0, 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 points.



Now line up the pins, and pin the the waist band on top of the skirt, overlapping a little bit.





What it should look like when you have it pinned together at all four points...



Now sew along the bottom edge of the waist band, making sure to catch the top edge of the skirt in your stitching.  Stretch the waistband gently as you go.  I found this part incredibly frustrating the first couple times I did it.  But it gets easier, it just takes a little practice.



Go all the way around, this is what you should end up with.



 Now all that is left is to finish the bottom hem.  I prefer a rolled hem.

The finished product!  This skirt is seriously so quick and easy to sew.  It took me an hour to sew, and that is including stopping to do the dinner dishes! 

Thanks for reading, let me know if there are any questions!

Paneled Circle Skirt Tutorial

Back with another tutorial!  Someone commented on a sewing forum I'm a part of the other day asking about sewing a paneled skirt and I figured since I've made 'em before (they were actually one of the first types of skirts I've made) that I'd do a tutorial for anybody else who might be wondering about it. 

Oh and as a side note, I wanted to make sure I was spelling "paneled" correctly, and while looking it up I found out that both "panelled" and "paneled" are acceptable.

Spelling lesson aside, lets get started!  The skirt I'm making in this tutorial is going to be an 8 paneled circle skirt.  First step is making the template. I use this site to figure out the measurements I need, but there are other sites out there that give you the formula if you want to figure it out yourself.  The measurements for the skirt I'm making (for my 2T sized daughter) were 3.5 inches for A, and 10 inches for B.

Get your pattern paper ready. I'm making my pattern on freezer paper because I like being able to iron it down on the fabric to cut instead of having to trace it.  Add your A and B measurements together, and put a pin in your measuring tape at that mark.  So for me that was 13.5 inches. Then push that pin down at the corner of the paper and into the carpet.  What we are doing is essentially making a compass, like in geometry class.



Pull the tape so it is straight out but don't pull it so tight that it pulls it up off the floor and pulls up the pin. Take a marker  and put it at the 1" end of the tape.  I just poke mine through the little hole in the metal tip. Then draw an arc across the paper, making sure to keep the tape straight.



Then take the pin out, and place it in the tape at the mark of your A measurement, for me that was 3.5", pin in back in the corner of paper, in the same spot as before, and draw another arc.



Now you have a paper, with two arcs, the smaller one inside the larger one.

 
^Ignore my ugly lines.

Cut along the outer line.



Now fold it in half, bringing the two straight edges together.


^The blue line is the fold.

Now cut along the small arc, unfold your piece, and cut on the fold. This will give you two pieces like this.



Each piece is 1/8 of your skirt.  If you wanted to add more panels, you could fold a piece in half again and cut on the fold and that would give you a 16 paneled skirt.  You could do any number of panels you want if you just figure out the measurements of the angle and whatnot.  I don't like geometry that much though, so I prefer to stick to simple ones like 8 or 16.   Essentially what we did was drafted the pattern for 1/4 of the skirt, then cut it in half.

Moving on though.  Take your pattern piece and trace it onto your fabric and cut it out. You'll need 8 pieces total.



Arrange your 8 pieces in the order you want them.

 

Take two of the panels, and put them right sides together and sew along one of the straight edges. Make sure you finish the edge either by serging, with a zig-zag stitch, or pinking shears.



Take your next panel place it right-sides together with one of the pieces and sew along the straight edge.  Repeat til all the pieces are sewn together.



Here are all the panels sewn together.  Now to close it up and complete the circle, line up the two raw edges left, wrong sides together and sew that seam.  For a more professional appearance iron and top stitch each seam.

The last step is to hem the bottom and attach the waist band. I wanted to add a contrast band at the bottom so I factored that in when I calculated my measurements in the beginning.  You can also hem it using bias tape, rolled-hem, zig-zag stitch, or folding over and stitching down. 

For the waist band,  I opted to just sew a wide elastic band to the top. There are tons of tutorials out there for different waist bands and how to attach them, so I'll go ahead and just let you google and use whatever method you prefer.

Here is the final product.....






Now go forth and craft!

Simplicity 2373 Pattern Review

During my blog hiatus last month I did something it took me a long time to work up the courage to do.  I made a dress for myself.  Using a REAL pattern even!  During one of Joann's big pattern sales several months back I picked up Simplicity 2373. 

 

I loved the dress so much.  I even went to the trouble of ordering the same fabric online.  Then the pattern and fabric sat in a box for awhile, because I was too scared to attempt it.  After a month or so I finally decided to attempt a muslin mock-up.  It turned out horrible. So I tried again using some quilters cotton I had an abundance of.  It came out even worse.  It was too big and looked horrible. This was probably a combination of a couple things, such as the sizing I went by on the back of the pattern, and that the pattern on the fabric was HORRENDOUS. Neon rainbow stripes horrendous.That was enough to scare me into putting the pattern away for a couple more months.

But then the warmer weather started making its appearance here in Oregon, and I wanted some cute dresses to wear.  So I decided to toss caution to the wind, try again, and even use my nice fabric for it.  The gamble paid off, the dress turned out and I love it!

The dress on Monica.  Yes, I named my mannequin.

 I made several changes to it though.  To fix the size issue, I looked towards the bottom on the back and looked at the Finished measurements, then went with that size, rather than looking at the top tables and going by what those measurements said.  This gave me a much better fit. With the practice dresses I made I felt like the bodice came too high up on me, so rather than adjusting the pattern to make it lower, I just omitted the top band.  To sew the bodice this way, I sewed the main fabric bodice pieces together, then the lining bodice pieces together, and basted them WRONG sides together.  Then I attached black single fold bias tape on the vertical seams, and used black double fold bias tape at the top.

One of the problems I encountered on my practice dresses was the gathering on the skirt part.  A search of the world wide web for reviews turned up that I wasn't the only one who had the problem.  It made the dress look very maternal (and the woman wearing it look very pregnant).  Not so much the look I was going for.  Several of the reviewers suggested trying pleats or darts instead, so that is what I did.

There might be a better way to figure out pleats, but I don't know it.  I laid my bodice out flat (the front and back were sewn together at one side at this point, but not the other) and then laid out my two skirt pieces (that I had sewn together on one side and already hemmed) right below it, matching up the side seams.  Then I just pinched the fabric and formed/ironed the pleats until the front skirt was the same width as the bodice front, then same for the back.  From there I pinned the pleats and sewed them down a couple inches. 

When it comes to attaching the zipper, I have an easier time doing the zipper first, then sewing the rest of the side together, so thats what I did. 

The straps seemed too wide to me, so I trimmed them down, and then just used double fold bias tape on the edges so I didn't have to turn and top-stitch them. After trying it on I decided it still didn't look quite finished, so I added the black band right under the bodice. 

 

I love it!

In fact I loved it so much that I made another one the next day, in this super cute cherry fabric.



Overall, I think it is a great pattern and I really love the style.  The instructions were hard for me to follow, which very well might have just been my inability to read a pattern, so after the two practice dresses were FAILS, I ditched the instructions and used my knowledge of garment construction to figure it out myself.  The sewing techniques required for this dress aren't very hard at all. I used my serger for some things, but a serger definitely isn't required.  The only stitch I used on my sewing machine was a straight stitch.  I think this dress would be fairly easy for someone who has basic knowledge of garment construction (or can read a pattern and follow directions better than me!) and knows how to use bias tape (if you do it my way instead of theirs and using ribbon). 

Good luck!  I hope my review and breakdown of adjustments I made was helpful to you!

Refashioned shirts

A few days ago I posted this picture....


Four shirts I picked up on clearance at Walmart for three bucks each.  Total of $12 dollars.  Here is the after shot-

 

Kiddo shirts at wallys and target are usually $4-$6.  By purchasing the adolescent shirts on clearance and then refashioning them I was able to get four shirts and a skirt for the same price as two or three tops.   The neckline on the butterfly shirt stretched out when I was sewing it so it looks kinda wonky in the picture, but I am going to see if adding snaps in the back will fix that.  Even if it doesn't though, I still got a super cute skirt out of that shirt! 

Looking back

I was looking through my old pictures the other day and came across the pictures of my early sewing products and thought I'd share them on here.  When I first started out I thought I'd never be able to sew the cute stuff I saw other women sew, but here I am sewing up clothes for my girl.  Its pretty awesome to look back and see how far I've come.


Heehee, my first project ever, baby leg warmers.



 bwahahah!  my first attempt at pants....


First diaper attempt


One of my first skirts



My rough-draft dress


More dresses, once I got my pattern figured out

A much improved diaper


Early shirt...


Shirt and skirt set

;

Shirt and pants
l

overlapping collar shirts...


And now dresses like these.  I made this one tonight. I never thought I'd get to here.  If you had shown me this dress a year ago and asked me if I'd ever be able to sew it, I'd have laughed and told you No Way. So if you are just starting out to sew and getting frustrated or feel like you're never going to advance, don't lose hope!  I still have a lot to learn and long ways to go, and this dress isn't really anything special, but when I look back at some of my earlier projects it sure does make me proud to see the progress I've made.

A mish mash.

I've been terribly neglectful of my blog.  Only 1 post in October, and none for November until today- the 23rd.  I have actually been busy though.

A recent picture of Mercy and I, showing off the back-carry in our mei tai

I am in the process of enrolling in the local community college, right now I'm just waiting to hear back about financial aid.  The first year for the most part is going to be pre-reqs like math, science, lit, and writing. I want to become a lactation consultant.  To do that I need to take a bunch of medical classes, and to take those I need to take a bunch of math/science classes.  I only just recently (relatively) decided I wanted to pursue a career as a LC.  In the time span of about 2 days I had several different people come to me for breastfeeding advice, and I was able to provide them the information they wanted.  It was pretty awesome and made me realize that its something I would love to be able to do for more people.

The same goes for car seat safety. I've also been looking up information on becoming a Child Passenger Safety Technician.  I'm very passionate about car seat safety, I've been made fun of over how important it is to me, but its not something I will apologize for.  Its a very important aspect of parenting, and sadly one that many parents are uneducated about.  7 out of 10 child seats are being improperly used. I'd love it if I could do something to help bring that number down.  Unfortunately the next class in my area won't be until March so I'll have to wait til then.

Enjoying her buckle block.

 Other than that (and child rearing) I've been doing quite a bit of sewing.  I made a toy for my daughter, it is a soft block, but because she absolutely LOVES buckles (like on high chairs, or in grocery carts, or the chest clip on her car seat) I decided to add some buckles to the block so she wasn't constantly asking me to take her to the car so she could buckle her baby doll into her seat.  She loves the block and it certainly occupies her for a good amount of time.

Matching shirt and skirt

I also learned how to sew shirts and have been having fun sewing them for my girl, and also matching pants.  I even ended up sewing up some things for people other than my child this past couple weeks.  A family friend asked that I sew her daughter some pants, and I also received an order for 3 diapers that have been sewn up and sent off to their new home.  Unfortunately I lost the memory card for my camera so the pictures of my crafts are all from my cell phone, and I didn't get a picture of the diapers before they left.

So there is just a general update on what I've been up to, I hope everybody else out there is doing well and hopefully I'll be able to get back on the ball of posting regularly.